The present invention relates to an apparatus having a cleaning mechanism for removing dust, fingerprints, oil, and the like attached to, e.g., a card-like information record medium.
A conventional means for removing dust, fingerprints, oil, and the like attached to an information record medium is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 53-30902. A cleaner made of a soft material and having projections and recesses which are alternately formed is arranged to oppose an insertion path of a card as an information record medium, and the card is clamped between the projections and the recesses, thereby cleaning the card.
In such a cleaning mechanism, however, since the cleaner is fixed, the card is cleaned at the time of card insertion and discharge. Even if the card is not stained or badly stained, the card is cleaned without exceptions, thus degrading cleaning efficiency.
Another conventional cleaning mechanism including a cleaning roller, a cleaning brush, and a cleaning fan, all of which are arranged near the card insertion port is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,507 and U.S. Ser. No. 4,947,029.
Since cleaning is always performed at the time of card insertion in the above cleaning mechanism, cleaning of a non-stained card is of no use, and the service life of the cleaning mechanism is undesirably shortened. In addition, since such a cleaning mechanism does not have a mechanism for detecting the degree of stain of the card, the same cleaning operation is performed for a card which is not very stained as well as a badly stained card. For this reason, when the card is badly stained, record-reproduction is started although the card is not sufficiently cleaned. Therefore, record-reproduction operations are inaccurate.
In conventional cleaning mechanisms, since the cleaner itself is stained, cleaning of the information record medium cannot be efficiently performed.
Still another conventional cleaning mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,029. In this cleaning mechanism, a cleaning roller is combined with a driving roller for conveying an information record medium to clamp the information record medium therebetween. A rotational direction and speed of the cleaning roller are set to be different from those of the driving roller to clean the surface of the information record medium. The mechanism employing the cleaning roller has a longer service life than that described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 53-30902 and has an advantage in that cleaning can be effectively performed. However, when the information record medium is badly stained, the stain cannot be perfectly removed from the medium when the medium passes through the cleaning roller once. Therefore, the card must often pass through the cleaning roller several times to obtain a satisfactory cleaning effect.
A plurality of cleaning rollers may be arranged parallel to each other to increase the cleaning effect. However, the load generated by the plurality of cleaning rollers is increased, and the driving force for conveying the information recording medium is undesirably increased. If the medium is driven by, e.g., a motor, a solenoid, and the like, power consumption is undesirably increased.
A plurality of cleaning rollers may be arranged in a unit to increase the cleaning effect. However, in this case, upstream rollers absorb more stain than downstream rollers. Therefore, the service life of the upstream and downstream rollers differ from each other, resulting in inconvenience.
The above problems also apply in cleaning of information record media having various shapes, in addition to cleaning of cards.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an information record medium cleaning apparatus which can solve the conventional problems described above, is inexpensive, has a long service life, and can effectively perform cleaning with efficiency.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an information record medium cleaning apparatus which can effectively perform cleaning with a small driving force.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for cleaning an information record medium in which the information record medium and means for cleaning the information record medium are relatively moved to clean the information record medium, comprising means for detecting the degree of stain of a surface of the information record medium which is received in the apparatus, wherein the information record medium is cleaned in accordance with a signal from the stain degree detecting means.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for cleaning an information record medium, comprising first cleaning means for removing stain of a record surface of the information record medium, and second cleaning means for cleaning a cleaning surface of the first cleaning means.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for cleaning an information record medium, wherein a plurality of cleaning rollers for cleaning a record surface of the information record medium are arranged parallel to each other along a convey path of the information record medium in such a manner that a rotational direction of at least one of the cleaning rollers is opposite to that of remaining ones of the cleaning rollers.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for cleaning an information record medium, wherein a plurality of cleaning rollers for cleaning a record surface of the information record medium are mounted on a holding member and arranged parallel to each other along a convey path of the information record medium, the cleaning rollers being independently attached to or detached from the holding member.